Winter theater scene heats up

The winter theater season may have gotten off to a slow start, but as cabin fever increases and, perhaps most important, school vacation week approaches, theaters offer more choices.

Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll

The winter theater season may have gotten off to a slow start, but as cabin fever increases and, perhaps most important, school vacation week approaches, theaters offer more choices.

"Is He Dead?" David Ives' adaptation of a never-produced cross-dressing farce by Mark Twain, ends its run at the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans on the final days of January and Feb. 1. That same weekend, the annual winter slate of entertainers gets busier at Cape Codder Resort & Spa in Hyannis and John Carver Inn & Spa in Plymouth.

The February theater schedule is heavy on family-friendly fare, featuring largely musicals and children's shows. The offerings get a little more serious in March, though that's also the start of spring high school musicals season.

Some coming highlights:

The performers

The Cape Codder and John Carver hotels have put together a slate of 13 dinner shows, running on certain nights through May 2. Some acts are individual performers — comedians, illusionists, hypnotists — but others are audience-participation shows that invite guests to solve a mystery, attend a wake or get up and dance. Dinner shows are either at the Cape Codder, Route 132 and Bearse's Way, Hyannis (508-771-3000 or 888-297-2200, www.capecodderresort.com) or John Carver, 25 Summer St., Plymouth (508-746-7100 or 800-274-1620, www.johncarverinn.com). Ticket prices vary and can be packaged with overnight stays.

The schedule: "Comedy on the Road," stand-up acts, Jan. 30, Feb. 28 and March 28 in Hyannis, Jan. 31 and May 2 in Plymouth; "Mobfather," an interactive murder mystery set at a Boston mob boss's birthday party, Feb. 7 and April 4 in Plymouth, March 7 in Hyannis; illusionist Jason Bishop, Feb. 13-14 and 20-21 in Hyannis; "Broadway Exchange," a Valentine's Day collection of love songs from Broadway shows, Feb. 14 in Plymouth; dancing to music from the '60s to '80s, with actors re-enacting famous movie scenes from that period, Feb. 28 in Plymouth and March 21 in Hyannis.

Then there's "Joey Canzano's Musical & Comedy Cabaret," March 6 and May 2 in Hyannis, March 7 in Plymouth; "Finnegan's Wake," an interactive Celtic comedy, March 13-14 in Hyannis and Plymouth; "Dave Kane's Misgivings," an evening of stories about growing up Catholic, March 21 in Plymouth and April 10 in Hyannis; mind reader/magician/comedian John Stetson, March 27 in Hyannis; R-rated hypnotist Joe DeVito, March 18 in Plymouth; magicians Markus and Angelique Steelgrave, April 17 in Hyannis and April 24 in Plymouth; "Lost in the '50s," April 18 in Hyannis; and R-rated hypnotist Frank Santos, April 25 in Hyannis.

Musicals and family fare:

The Vineyard Playhouse in Vineyard Haven is finishing up its 11-week Fourth Grade Theater Project with 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday performances through Feb. 14 The short plays — which change each week — were created and presented by students from all the island's schools. Many are also set on Martha's Vineyard. Tickets are available at the box office on the day of each performance. More information: www.vineyardplayhouse.org.

Harwich Junior Theatre is producing "Bye Bye Birdie," the musical by Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams about a '50s rock idol visiting a small town as he's about to be drafted into the Army. Shows are Feb. 12-March 15 at HJT, 105 Division St., West Harwich. Tickets: 508-432-2002.

At the same time, Feb. 12-March 15, the Academy of Performing Arts, 120 Main St., Orleans, is staging Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music," about a young nun sent to care for the von Trapp children as war is breaking out in Austria. Tickets: 508-255-1963.

Eventide Arts, in residence at Dennis Union Church on Route 6A, will present "Pinocchio," William Glennon's adventurous, funny adaptation of the fairy tale about a puppet who wants to become a real boy. Shows are Feb. 14-22. Tickets: 508-398-8588.

The Honors Actors at Nauset Regional High School will perform "Polaroid Stories," Naomi Iizuka's blending of the stories of street kids with mythology, for the annual Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Festival competition this year. (Nauset was state champ last year.) Shows for the public are Feb. 26-27 at the school in North Eastham before the first round of competition Feb. 28.

Barnstable High School's Drama Club is bringing back its original musical version of "The Hobbit," J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy tale of a halfling who sets out on an adventure with a wizard and dwarfs. Shows are March 20-29 at the school's performing arts center, West Main Street, Hyannis. Tickets: 508-771-6246.

More theater:

From Feb. 20 to March 1, Counter Productions offers "Wonder of the World," David Lindsay-Abaire's story of a woman so shocked by her husband's secret that she flees to Niagara Falls to find the life she thinks she missed out on. Shows are at The Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford St. Tickets: 508-487-7487. Counter's season there continues with Paul Zindel's "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," about the effect of a girl's science experiment on her dysfunctional family, March 20-29.

Barnstable Comedy Club is staging "Waiting for Godot," Samuel Beckett's existential comedy about two dilapidated bums waiting for Godot to arrive. Shows are March 12-29 at the comedy club, Route 6A, Barnstable Village. Tickets: 508-362-6333.

Also due in March, though dates weren't yet available: Woods Hole Theater Company's "The Gingerbread Lady," by Neil Simon, and Chatham Drama Guild's production of Agatha Christie's "Black Coffee."